My Halloween Costume for 2013...

Because this year is the twentieth anniversary of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I decided to dress up as Sally! 

   The Nightmare Before Christmas has always been one of my all-time favorite movies, as I mentioned before in my Halloween Movie Countdown post. It was one of those comfort zone films I made my mom put on for me every single day, when I was little. I repeated lines from it over and over again, like "JACK! The pumpkin king..." and "nice work bone-daddy!" I admired Jack and Sally and their Halloween/Christmas adventure so much, it became a film that influenced my obsession with all things holiday, as well as my strange love and passion for Halloween. 

    The first challenge with being Sally is creating the illusion of pale, blue skin. Since I'm usually running around during my Halloween parties, preparing food, etc, I decided not to use blue make up to cover my legs and arms, knowing it'd be wiped off at some point. Instead I bought a pair of white leggings and a pair of white opera gloves and dyed them a pale blue color. I then stitched them up with black yarn, trying my best to copy her original stitch lines. Luckily I already had a pair of black booties that fit the part, and I scored on a cheap pair of black and white striped wrist/ankle warmers.

    For her dress, I went to my local Goodwill and found a teal blue dress for a base and other articles of clothing with textured fabrics to use as the patches on the dress. I then used tape to set up the specific pattern of lines between each patch on the dress. Then I cut out the pieces of fabric and pasted them on with my ever-trusty glue-gun! Afterward, I painted the spots, stripes, and swirls on select patches that are very significant in Sally's dress design. When completed, I stitched with black yarn between the patches. 

   After completing the overall look of the dress and body, it was time to focus on hair and make up! For make-up I luckily found some great Ben Nye colors that really matched Sally's look. A pale blue for her skin, and a darker blue for around the eyes. With much coverage and blending the look came together. After slapping on some red lipstick, it was time to stitch myself up yet again, only this time it was with black eyeliner going down my forehead, cheeks, and neck. Let's not forget some fun spooky lashes to make my eyes pop!

     To achieve the dark red, almost brick colored hair, I chose to do something other than spray the crap out of my hair with hair color spray, like I've done quite a few Halloweens now. This may sound odd, but I actually brushed make up through my hair: I sprayed some normal hair spray into some red (bright) Ben Nye make up I bought and then scrubbed a small cheap hair brush in it. I then just brushed it all through my hair. It was actually much easier and more efficient than I imaged it to be (and than I am making it sound here). This way the make would wash out of my hair like normal hair spay in the shower, and not be a huge hassle to scrub out or even have any leftover streaks. Worked out just fine! 

     Overall, I was very pleased with how my Sally costume came out (although maybe I'll take better pictures of the costume another time, since I mostly have just party pictures). I think, out of the many costumes I've put together over the years, this one may be the most well-made. I'm happy that it turned out to be pretty accurate too! In my opinion, a great Halloween isn't complete without a fun costume, especially when you're dressing up as a character you love!